The laboratory of Infrared Materials and Devices (LIMD) of Ningbo University was founded in 2006. It is a specialized research institution and pilot product development center for infrared chalcogenide glasses and optical/photonic devices based on chalcogenide glasses. The lab has a second-level doctor point of information functional materials and devices. It is also one of the international scientific cooperation centers founded by the ministry of national science and technology.

Our research focuses on the inorganic non-metallic glass materials and optical/photonic devices based on such glasses, the fundamental application problems about infrared materials that were encountered in the economic development process of our country, and new fabrication techniques for the next-generation functional chalcogenide glasses. Our research is mainly concerned with fundamental scientific problems, emphasizing on finding quantitative relationships among compositions, fabrication techniques, structures, and performances of novel materials. Specifically, our research focuses include: novel composite functional materials such as chalcogenide glasses and glass-ceramics, new fabrication techniques for novel functional materials, and fundamental application researches for novel infrared optical devices and optical systems.

The lab is under the leadership of Dr. Shixun Dai. We have 19 formal staffs and 6 non-formal ones. Four of our staffs are professors, eight are associate professors. 90% of the staffs own doctoral degrees. One of our staffs was ranked among the Chinese "Thousand Talents Program" Distinguished experts, one was selected as the New century talents in the Ministry of Education, and 6 were selected into the “151” Talent program of Zhejiang province. Currently, our lab has 5 candidates for doctoral degree and 80 for masters’ degree.

In the last five years, our lab undertook more than 50 research projects and received a total funding of more than 40 million RMB. 20 of the research projects were funded by national funding sources (including one Major international cooperation projects of the ministry of national science and technology, one 973 project and one 973 pre-project of the ministry of national science and technology, one key project of the national natural science foundation). 15 of the projects were funded by provincial funding sources, and 20 projects were horizontal projects. In the last five years, we received 38 national patents and published 150 journal articles in famous international SCI journals (such as APL, OE, OL, etc.). Our lab earned the national award for technological invention 2nd prize in 2014, award for technological progress 1st prize of Zhejiang province in 2012, award for technological progress 2nd prize of Zhejiang province in 2007, award for technological progress 1st prize of Ningbo city, award for scientific research achievements in colleges and universities 1st prize of Zhejiang province in 2007, award for science/technology advancement 1st price of Ningbo city in 2011, and award for scientific research and achievements in colleges and universities 2nd prize of ministry of education in 2012.

Our lab has a floor space of 5400m2, containing four experimental platforms (material fabrication and processing, material characterization, fabrication and characterization of optical devices, optical system designing). The lab purchased a comprehensive set of domestic and imported equipment for fabricating chalcogenide glasses and optical devices, material characterizations, and computer modeling. The total worth of the equipment in our lab is about 35 million RMB. The lab also contains a 1300 m2 pilot scale production area for chalcogenide glasses. Our Ge-Sb-Se chalcogenide glasses have been used and tested in more than 20 domestic and foreign research institutions and commercial companies.

In the aspect of external communications, our lab has built close academic connections with many famous research institutions, such as the first French University of Rennes, Pohang Industrial University of Korea, University of Central Florida, University of Delaware, National University of Australia, Institute of photonic technology of Korea, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of Chinese Academy of Science, Xi’an Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, National University of Defense Technology, and Kunming Institute of Physics. We also organized three international and domestic conferences in the field of infrared materials. The lab successfully organized the 17th International Symposium on Non-Oxide and New Optical Glasses and the 5th China Symposium on Functional Glasses. Our lab also values the cooperation with commercial companies. For instance, we founded a cooperative research lab for infrared materials with Yunnan Kiro-CH Photonic Co., Ltd.

Our lab also undertakes the responsibility of cultivating scientific talents in the fields of optical materials and devices. In the last five years, more than 120 students of our lab received doctor’s and master’s degree. One of the graduate students received Chinese Youth Science and Technology Innovation Award, one received the award for outstanding doctoral dissertation of Zhejiang province, and four received awards for outstanding master’s thesis of Zhejiang province.